The publicity whores at China's Shenzhen Great Loong Brother tablet-PC maker are at it again.
First, they raised a worldwild rumpus by floating the prospect of a lawsuit accusing Apple of stealing the design of their tubby P88 slate for the iPad. Now they've blatantly ripped off the look and feel of Mac OS X, pasted it onto …

COMMENTS

I think it's called irony, not plagiarism

That's the most humorous -and logical-thing to do if they really think that Cuppertino stole their design (which, to be fair, appears quite likely, as the main point of that article of yours ridiculing the claim was that the devices don't run the same OS -which is, as the claim was about design, pretty far from the point -"several thousand light years appart"-style far).

I mean, whether or not Apple stole their design -my take on this is "yes" but...- there is no way that this company could get justice from an US court (what with Apple pockets being bottomless and merkin IP system only recognizing merkin intellectual "property" -even when it's a blatant rip-off, when there's a metric ton of proven prior art or when the idea is so blindingly obvious that any 3-yo kid in human history probably came up with a similar idea).

So they choosed to flip the bird at Mighty Apple instead, probably making some cash in the process as I can totally see a lot of people parting cash for this, either for it's ironic value or not, especially in China. Mind you, I'm not even remotely Chinese and I would totally get one of those if they were available here, just fo' teh lulz. And chances are Shenzhen can get away with it, too. Which is the way it should be. Frankly that's hillarious, and it's only a skin (i.e. design) so it's appropriate retaliation, too.

RE: hey, i get it!

oh, and just in case you couldn't see it for yourself...

...I think if you check you'll find that shenzen and apple both based their tablet designs on the previously-existing iphone/ipod look. I may just be a dumb, arrogant merkin, but it seems like that's an important point.

I humbly apologise

"You said 'merkin' because we're all dumb redneck hicks with drawls here! Touche, my friend - there's no coming back to incisive wit like yours."

I humbly apologise to any US citizen who might have been hurt by my -apparently- derogatory use of the colloquialism "merkin". Except, of course for Mr David W. who vehemently demonstrated the validity of such derogatory terms.

Polically coorect answer: you're dumb

But the view you express are still the she sign of an incredibly dumd and mislead design sense. Apple's ans Shezen's tablets are identical as far as design goes, and bothe very different from the iPod touch or the iPhone. Just use your eyes. ( I would call you 'm?rk?n' just for the lulz but my post would probably be nixed again)

Seriously, El Reg ...

Do you think this company thinks it is going to compete on a global scale?

Or do you think it is going to advertise to non-English speaking people, pointing to the El Reg article as "proof" that Apple and MS approve of this supposed merger ... complete with pictures, for the folks who can't read/write/speak English?

I too, know where my money is....

... or where it would be, if the P88 was available up here.

As it's sadly not ( and the lesser iPad won't be for a while, either) I'll content myself with my EEE900 until someone comes up with a real tablet -preferably an ARM one (say, like the the TouchBook but with a delivery date that doesn't beg for a time machine).

But then if I was somehow brainwashed into forgetting what `value for money` means, and if I needed a device that doesn`t do fuck all while costing more than my car, I might consider getting an iPad. Maybe.

Well done.

So you've established that the iPad isn't aimed at socially inept nerds (hey, if the cap fits). The thing is that most consumers couldn't give a rats arse about having "a full, multi-tasking OS", and that is who Apple are going for with practically all of their devices. You want to know why it'll never be the year of Linux? The consumer market doesn't care.

Linux? WTF?

But, if people don't want Linux they'd best get rid of all those Tivos then.

And most other PVRs...

And most set-top boxes...

And PS3s...

And..and...and...

But I wasn't necessarily talking about Linux (other kernels are available...).

I did not "care" if my washing machine had a pre-soak cycle when I was looking. Really, it was not part of my buying decision. I would "care" though if it could not clean my clothes. I did not know in advance that a pre-soak cycle might have been important (luckily the one I bought has one, but anyway...).

So you are right, general consumers will not "care" in advance about multi-tasking, USB, tethering, video out etc. Right up until the point where it does not do something they expect and then they will "care" mightily.

Oh, and thank you for the ad hominem. it;'s nice to see that the powers of reasoned debate on El Reg are still in the gutter. You do realise the irony in calling me a "socially inept nerd" whilst slinging said insult; don't you?

Well done

So you've established that the iPad i aimed at people who don't need an`electronic social interface` device. Which, given the OS and Apple's vicehold on the thing, is the only possible use of the iPad*. What was your point, again?

*sure, you could also -possibly- watch movies, if you felt like staring down at a small screen on your knees for 2 hrs.

Explain

..and so the Jobs Mob trickle in 2 by 2..

Fair story but I don't think anything will be stolen from Apple. There's plently of other devices in developement which will prove the iFad age rapidly. Oh look, iPhone 4G is on it's way. Can we please talk about something else?

Also, when are we getting a review for the TouchBook?

C'mon El Reg, fingers out of, erm, wherever they might have been all this time, this has been `available` for several month now. As far as tech is concernerned it's several orders of magnitude hotter than a dumb new x86 tablet PC -may it bear the bitten fruit brand- especially when the latter-mentionned device is only a glorified smartphone with no phone function.